Vol. 492 No. 5
44 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will ensure that resources are made available to the Social Welfare Appeals Office to ensure that hearings and determinations are completed quickly; his views on whether the average time of 22 weeks to process appeals is acceptable; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14281/98]
Almost 13,000 appeals were dealt with by the Social Welfare Appeals Office in 1997. The average time taken to process all of these appeals was 22 weeks. This average period includes all phases of appeals including the additional time involved in the determination of appeals where, for example, further investigations have to be made or where adjournments have been sought by the appellant or by the legal representative acting on his behalf.
The social welfare appeals system is a quasi-judicial one and the procedures involved are designed to ensure that every appellant's case gets full and satisfactory consideration. There is an inevitable time-lag inherent in such a process which is governed by statutory and fair procedure requirements.
In some cases appeals can be dealt with on the basis of information supplied by the appellant and the Department's deciding officer without recourse to an oral hearing and these would take less than the average time. Where an oral hearing is required, however, an additional delay is inevitable. While processing times in the Social Welfare Appeals Office compare favourably with international experience in this area, the achievement of improvement in these times is a major objective of the office. To this end, four additional appeals officers were appointed during the second half of 1997 and this has brought about an improvement in the processing times for appeals so far this year. However, at all times it is necessary to ensure that progress in this regard is achieved in a manner that is not in conflict with or at a cost to the demands of justice and the requirement that every appeal be fully investigated and examined on all its merits.
